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2011-09-19 - The Sleeper Has Awakened
The alert goes out late in the evening, notifying the Sentinels: a secured DoD train has made an unscheduled stop on the tracks southwest of New York City, quite a few miles away from the nearest military support. Automated beacons have detected the train's stop, but communications are out and they have been unable to reach the escort personnel. For some reason the DoD isn't very forthcoming about, they seem to feel this train is both very important, /and/ qualifies as 'Sentinel business'. At the corporate headquarters for StormDyne Applied Sciences, a similar if more subtle alert sounds in the executive suite. The blonde of the pair lifts her smartphone and glances at it, her lips pursing and body tensing. "That ... can't be good. Someone just cracked open the case of serums we delivered to the DoD liason earlier this evening. They opened the case without the keys and codes." Visibly upset, Susan glances at her partner and best friend. "I know you had plans. But can you come with me? I want to check this out." Less than a minute later, the Astral Plane in the area surrounding the western half of New York City erupts with a terrible scream. Those with a telepathic gift within reach are almost sure to 'hear' and feel that painful wave of agonized thought. And right now, the only Sentinel not putting out fires metaphorical and, in at least once case, literal (Texas is on fire again) is Iron Man. Angling towards the train. His obvious suspicion is that somebody is doing an updated Great Train Robbery. The driver's probably not answering because he's dead. Unfortunate, but... "The inhibitor serum?" Janet frowns. "I'm still not sure how ethical that stuff is to use on criminals. In the hands OF criminals..." She strips off her lab coat. Her other clothes follow suit. "Let's go." She says as she slips on her mask. "Anyone who messes with StormDyne property messes with StormDyne's founders." Considering how often they do the frontal lobe tango (telepathy being such a handy way to communicate sneakily), it's no surprise that Jean Grey's sudden mental anguish can be heard, although mutedly, by her erstwhile significant other. << Tony! >> she manages to cry out as she dampens the wave of pain she's receiving from somewhat nearby. << Wait! >> Regardless of whether he waits or not, it doesn't take her long to costume up and fly in his direction. She doesn't need any sort of technological homing beacon. She's got a mental one that's far more reliable. Phoenix' aura lights up the skies around her as she races to the source of that cry. For her own part, as soon as she is changed and her partner is ready to go, Susan Storm comes out onto the balcony outside their office and buttons up, then fades out as she forms an invisible bubble around herself - and probably the Winsome Wasp as well - and starts propelling said bubble rapidly towards the signal of the opened case. They won't break the sound barrier, but it'll be close. "I know you have some moral quandries where it is concerned. But that research project has provided a lot of funding to improve all of our labs and equipment, which has allowed us our other successes. And I still feel it has proper uses." The serum is not at fault, it is up to those who employ it. As arguably the fastest flier in the group, and the one with government clearance, chances are that Iron Man arrives on the scene first. What he will find is somewhat as he expected. The train itself has been stopped. The connection to the primary locomotive has been severed, and the locomotive is pinned down by two heavy assault choppers and a few up-armored humvee units with mounted weapons. It has been enough to assure that locomotive is not making it back to the train. The train's centralmost two cars have been forcibly boarded, surrounded by more humvees and bristling with troops. There are also signs of heavy weapons damage up and down the train, and radar can pick up a few other helicopters circling the area, trying apparently to get around behind the approaching radar signature of Iron Man to do something about his interference. << What was that? >> Iron Man sends to Phoenix. Then, a quick image of what he's seeing. Nothing that seems to be beyond mil-spec. Nothing, he's grateful to see, stolen from Stark, although some of it may well have been sold by the company a little while ago. Helicopters? He does something helicopters can't do and shoots straight upwards, vertically, to get above them, get space. Besides, choppers are *so* vulnerable from above. "Definately faster than me flying under my own power!" Janet says cheerfully. She has settled on Susan's shoulder and is happily watching the city zoom by under them. "A lot less tiring, too. Let's stay invisible when we reach the scene. Scout it out a little, get an idea what we're dealing with. If we're gonna fight, I want to fight smarter. Not harder." << I don't know, my ETA is two minutes. >> A lot can happen in two minutes, and Phoenix knows this. She takes the visual of the baddies and remarks, << Professional job, whatever they're after. I'm too far away to start mindscanning the pilots and others, but five bucks says they'll either be conditioned or weren't told anything anyway just in case. >> And of course, there's the undercurrent of natural worry that he'll get in over his head. "Definitely a good idea." Susan offers to her friend with a smile. Since they are both inside the bubble, they can see each other fine. Not so, those on the outside. They'll only just be reaching visual of the train in the next sixty seconds, and it will take time for those with no military or other combat training to assess this situation and make a plan. But they're cooking along as fast as they can go, and chances are no one there will be able to detect their presence. Well, except for a telepath. Darned sneaky mindspeakers. Choppers can go straight up, but they cannot fly nose up, and thus they can't go upwards with great speed, certainly nothing that can compare with the Iron Man armor. The choppers close, ready to open fire, and then lose their firing solutions as Iron Man shoots up to get altitude on his targets. Their communications burst outward, and two of the up-armored humvee units launch missiles from the launchers mounted on their back ends, the missiles tracing after the Iron Man armor with dangerous intent. The choppers, meanwhile, pull away from one another and fly to get separation as they seek to gain altitude and try to diminish the advantage Iron Man has given himself. For those with a connection to the psychic plane, the roar of agony has now died down to a pulsing ripple. It is as if something dark and dangerous has been awakened, painfully, and it is starting to quest about, seeking whatever has caused it this pain. Iron Man, so far, oblivious to approaching invisible women. Or tiny women. He's not oblivious to the missles. Wait...wait...and then a rocket downwards, leaving all four of them converging on the space he was. If he did it right, there will be a nice big kaboom as they hit each other. Old fighter pilot tricks are, sometimes, the best. "Oookay. That's Iron Man. He's fighting a bunch of guys who aren't US military but armed to the teeth and they seem to be after the train... which includes our formula." Jan says as she examines the situation. "Right. Here we go. Sue, let me out. I'm going into the train to see what the deal is." She shrinks down even further, until she's a mere few centimeters in height. Then Janet van Dyne, aka the Winsome Wasp, flies downward, her little wings zipping her along. Entering the front boxcar unnoticed should be a snap! Phoenix has a very uneasy feeling about this. << Something's not right down there... >> she warns Tony as she makes it on the scene, all very flashy with her TK aura due to her flying fullbore to get there on time. << I'm gonna take a look. Be careful up there. >> And she angles her descent to meet up with the train, but at a safe distance, mind scanning for any anomalies other than... that thing... "You be careful, Jan. Hang on, I'm opening the bottom of the bubble." Susan offers her friend, voice tinged with real concern. These guys are playing for keeps, and there's no way for her to know what awaits Jan inside that train right now. But she has to admit Jan is the best equipped of the two of them to peek around inside and see what is going on. "I'm going to do what I can to help Iron Man with these jerks. But you better call me and tell me what you find down there." Susan concentrates hard, reshaping the bubble as she stretches her legs to either side of the opening she opens in the bottom of the bubble, through which the Winsome Wasp then buzzes away. A few moments later, and Susan has closed the bubble. To 'help Iron Man', she creates another bubble and englobes one of the choppers, even as all of them try to come around and fire on the armored form when he drops down to avoid the missiles. It may only be one of the choppers, but that one manages to unload their ordinance into that invisible forcefield at close range, which is going to do cause them all kinds of havok and hopefully damage. Iron Man is faced now with three choppers doing their best to take him out of the sky quite forcefully with rockets, machinegun fire and such. The vehicles below do what they can to help their compatriots, firing off shots from below including a few more missiles. Down below, Wasp will get inside the train and find a crew of commandos dressed like those in the vehicles outside, armed to the teeth. Together with them are four guys in yellow armored beekeeper suits. They seem to be messing with a large glass-fronted case that is frosted over. They have several other cases open - armored suitcases of one variety or another, one of which is the one with the vials of the various iterations of the StormDyne Applied Sciences serums. Phoenix's scans will detect two things unusual as she sweeps the area. The first is that there are minds she is picking up that she cannot see with her eyes, including one in the air not too far away from where Iron Man is fighting. Another seems to be flitting into the train even as she is scanning. There are also some 'blank spots' to her scan, where she cannot sense anything at all, in a way that feels wrong and alien. And then there is that giant mind, that powerful behemoth of a mind, waking, stirring angrily ... Gorrammit. The rules of engagement say you don't kill, but there's just no way Iron Man can hold them off *without* sending repulsor blasts flying towards the helicopters. << You'll have to worry about it. I'm a little busy! >> He isn't, still aware of the other backup they have. Yet. Or...wait. What DID happen to that chopper? He doesn't have time to think about it. "Oooooh. AIM. Geez. I thought this was a real problem." Jan mutters to herself. She's the co-ruler of one of the most advanced corporations on the planet. She's been briefed on Advanced Idea Mechanics. Jan speaks briefly into the StormDyne comlink she's got tucked away in her ear. "Its AIM, Invisible. I've got this." That being said, the winsome Wasp bursts into action! Down she flies. A little zap here. A little zap there. A whole lot of zaps everywhere! Its a party! << We've definitely got company other than the bad guys here... >> Phoenix warns Iron Man as she continues to investigate now that she has a fix on what's going down, or at least some kinda idea. << I've got a bad feeling about this. >> It's hard for Sue and Jan to /not/ see her. They can probably see her from orbit until she toned down the TK to poke... or rather, beat down some of the bad guys on the ground shooting up at her favorite person on the planet. << There's something in there, and it is /not/ friendly... and I don't mean whatever two blindspots where I can sense minds but can't see anyone. >> But what adorable blindspots they are! The Winsome Wasp zaps at the AIM goons, thoroughly disrupting whatever they have in mind. They have no idea who or what is doing this, but they are zapped and they respond to that pain, sweeping about, trying to locate the source and take it out. This means they're not paying attention to what they were just doing. And then one of them takes a zot to the neck and collapses. Three more to go. "There's someone else out here, glowing like some kind of ... I don't know what. Bird of fire? They're flying over the train, and seem to be intent on the guys attacking Iron Man." the Invisible Woman tells Wasp, as she watches all of this. "Let's see what I can do to help." The other heroine reaches out, and drives a sharp cone of force through the side of one of those choppers, then drops it on top of one of those humvees before they can get off another missile salvo on Iron Man. But so far, she is being careful not to kill anyone. Just machines. Phoenix manages to smash up several more humvees, and starts swatting around armed commandos, not allowing them to set up any other man-portable heavy weapons to take on Iron Man, who still seems to be - other than the now glowing Phoenix - the only 'problem' for them on site. Of course, her telekinetic field is more than sufficient to deflect what little small arms fire comes her way, at least to begin with. Inside the train, Wasp can see something move inside that massive container the AIM goons were screwing with. And then one of the goons halts, twisting in position, as blood starts pouring from his eyes, nose and ears inside the suit. He rather gurgle-expires. Phoenix can feel a tremendous wave of focused rage and hatred reaching out, and something dies. Desppite whatever shielding those AIM suits have, she feels it shatter, and then the mind inside just evaporates. And...two and two together. << Invisible Woman. Good guy. >> He isn't sure who the *second* blind spot is, but for all he knows, Susan can hide an entire squad. A far simpler explanation...but the forcefield, definitely, gave her away. He's trying not to kill anyone himself. Destroying their tech? He's bringing down another chopper, doing just enough damage to force the pilot to land without crashing...and he knows exactly what that is. "... umm... I'm pretty sure I didn't do that." Jan zaps the remaining goons and then enlarges to normal size so she can kneel down next to the guy who is coughing up blood like no body's business. "Eeew. Its coming through the mesh of his beekeeper helmet.. SUE!" Jan contacts her partner. "SUE! I think maybe they're storing biological weapons on this car! I think it got one of these AIM guys and OH MY GOD I'M PROBABLY INFECTED TOO! SUE SAVE YOURSELF!" When Jan screams, Jean hears it. Not with her ears, but the sudden spike within that invisible mind is enough to ping off her senses. << Tony, we might have a biohazard down below. >> Surprisingly, her words are calm, directed. Her TK field seems to sizzle in the air as she strengthens her shielding against foreign agents. << It got the other blindspot... >> Since Tony mentioned the Invisible Woman, she's a bit surprised to spot someone who's upset and not invisible at all. "Calm down!" she says aloud. "Let's make sure before we panic everyone in the five boroughs and half of Jersey." Sternly and firmly spoken, like someone who's been in danger similar to this for a long time. "Jan ... oh God, Jan! Listen, if they're storing chemical weapons, there should be a chemical wash chamber in the next car. Go! I'll seal up the train to maintain containment. Get clear of the exposure and get yourself cleaned off as best you can until I can find a way to safely get you back to the labs." Outside, with Iron Man and Phoenix apparently handling the last of the choppers and other threats, the previously invisible Invisible Woman appears as she settles onto the ground, arms outstretched. Her masked form, in hat and overcoat, looks a lot like what Iron Man would remember from Louisiana a while back. Arms outstretched, she seals up the train's two cars in a large, air-tight invisible forcefield. She is not at all sure what her next move needs to be, but first she has to make sure no one else gets infected or dies. She can't let it spread. But how does she save Jan now? The remaining commandos aren't hard to deal with, as they are progressively robbed of their heavier weapons. Outclassed, they aren't fanatics, and eventually they lay down their weapons and take seats around. They rescue the crews from fallen vehicles, and otherwise just stay out of the way. They didn't hear anything about biohazards, so they aren't panicking. They're just figuring the jig is up. Sensing another mind, radiant, clear and vibrantly full of energy, that thing Phoenix has been sensing stirs again, reaching out angrily to make silence, swatting at that mind. An AIM goon steps between Jan and the cryonics tube, and he gurgles in agony as his helmet starts to spark, the shielding build in overloading. << Phoenix. What's going on in there? >> All business, with his affection for her quite deeply buried under the urgency of the situation. << I can go in if needed. >> The suit, after all, has full life support. If there is a biohazard in there, then the worst case scenario is that he has to use a spare while this one is decontaminated. "Oh, geez. You guys are no fun at all." Jan says with a snort. "Take away my melodrama, geez. I'm fine, Sue. No worries. Whatever's happening is only happening to one guy, not to the whole room. So either he's hyper allergic or its something else." She zaps the poor guy in agony. Yes, it seems callous... but considering he was clearly dying already, knocking him out is a mercy. Phoenix rolls her eyes a bit. << Possibly a false warning... the young lady in here seems to think we ruined her fun... >> However, there's still that creeping feeling running up her spine. << But there's something else here, something dark and evil... And it's not too keen on my presence. I can sense it trying to silence me... >> She looks toward Sue and ponders for a moment. "Are we really clear on it being free of contamination?" she asks verbally, quite warily as she eyeballs the attackers standing down. Several of them get various metal contrivances wrapped around them to make sure they stay put. "You ... you ... stinker!" the visible Invisible Woman shouts at her compatriot, shaking her head. She gives another toss of her head as the others concentrate on coming in closer, while she keeps the train cars bottled up in the invisible field. "So something in there did that to him? Ew. I don't have any air-test kits here. We have them trapped in there. Why don't you get back out here, and we can leave this to the professional and the firestar." Another of the AIM goons twitches, then starts to seize, before starting to bleed like the one Wasp was checking out earlier. Phoenix can be sure that trooper managed to get himself, accidentally, in between her and whatever is inside, on a straight-line course. That malevolent intent reached out forcefully to strike her down ... and struck that AIM trooper instead, shattering first his helmet's technological shields, and then shattering his mind and body. Yuck. << Remind me to beat whoever it is up later. Okay. Is there anything I can do to help you deal with that thing? >> If it's attacking Jean telepathically, Tony knows there's precious little he CAN do...from his knowledge, anyway. But he doesn't know for sure, and there's always a chance he might be able to help. He doesn't touch down, all the better to keep his eye on surrendering AIM-ers. << Crap, crap, crap... whatever's down here, it's me that it's after... >> Finally a note of worry for her own skin there in Phoenix. << Either this will make it /really/ mad, or KO it neatly. Here's the old college try... >> But she doesn't flee like she could do. Instead, even as she tightens her telekinetic shield to its utmost, she reaches out with her mind to try and ID or otherwise shut the bad guy down. A powerful bright psionic bolt of energy comes lancing out of her, arrowing in on the foul loathesome thing at the heart of this chaos. With two AIM goons collapsing in bad ways in as many minutes, Wasp stops horsing around and decides to do what her partner suggests, making a shot for the door. She briefly bounces off of the invisible bubble surrounding the train, and then she pops through when that bubble disappears for only a moment. She makes it all the way to within range of the Invisible Woman's arm, when the blast comes outwards. The Invisible Woman, still quite visible, stays where she is, containing the train, uncertain about what else is going on. She hasn't any telepathic senses, and can't hear any of what Phoenix and Iron Man are discussing. All she knows is that something in there did something very bad to two AIM science goons and she's trying not to let it out. Phoenix reaches out to locate and pinpoint the mind she has felt stirring inside. She finds it within the frosted cryonic tube at the heart of the car that Wasp just escaped. She lances out and strikes it with her telepathic power, and its power fades back, the strike clearly affecting whatever it is. For long moments it would seem as though the threat has been dealt with. Then, with almost no warning at all, a surging wave of that raging fury erupts telepathically outwards towards the heroes, with crippling degrees of psionic force. The Invisible Woman wobbles, dropping to a knee as she nearly blacks out. She manages to catch Wasp, and craddles her tiny friend against her body for safety, as she struggles not to just collapse. "Don't know ... what that was. But ... ow." Iron Man...is going to be regretting not landing...because there's no way he can keep control under that assault. The suit plummets, missing the railroad tracks but making an Iron Man shaped crater in the embankment. << Owwwwww >> Yeah, he's conscious. But regretting being so right now. Owowow. << Sorry about that, love, >> Phoenix apologizes silently to Iron Man before gathering her energies one more time. The TK aura brightens as she focuses once again. This is no different than exercises against the Professor, or theoretical scenarios that Magneto taught her and still does teach her these days. She has no further thoughts to spare for Iron Man's dignity or situation, although both are near and dear to her heart. Instead, as she rolls with the psionic backlash, her telepathic shields taking the beating as she was taught to do, she tries to harness that pain and that power and redirect it, along with her own power, to try and shut the other mind down before anyone else gets hurt. << No way this thing's just gonna shut off if I go mind-dark... >> she mutters to herself, although it's likely Tony will hear it. The other heroines present have no more defense against this thing that did Iron Man. Just as he is not unconscious, neither are they. But had they been the true focus of that attack, they'd be a goey mess, just like the AIM goons were. Phoenix's counter-attack, focused as it is with greater force and intensity, amplified by her own pain, hammers home at that large, alien-sort of mind, battering against telepathic shields that seem almost like the basalt cliffs of some eternal undersea fortress. Mighty and imposing, they are very substantial, but not entirely as impervious as they seem. Her continued sharp battery does reach that mind, and the attack it was launching slowly fades. Of course, it is probably just regaining its strength to resume the attacks. As the dark mind goes dormant, one of the AIM goons Wasp zapped into lala land manages to lurch upward, slapping at something on the controls for the chamber in which that dangerous mind is held. Even as Phoenix can sense it gathering itself, preparing to launch another attack, she'll also be able to sense it slowly losing its grip, sliding backwards into some deep, dark pit of cold silence. Just as the creature's next attack would erupt outwards, the lights on the capsule shift to blue and green pairs, and Phoenix can no longer sense that terrible mind. << I...need a drink. >> Tony manages. He's struggling out of the mini-crater the suit made. Owowowowow. But he's *alive*, which is the most important thing. Phoenix actually lurches forward as the pressure of that horrific mind suddenly vanishes. "What the...?" she mutters, her head ringing from the terrific headache she'd just given herself. Slowly, she re-knits the telepathic shielding around her mind, even as she allows herself to sink to the ground near Iron Man's crater, reaching out with her remaining telekinetic abilities to help him upright. She even fondly dusts the armor off with her hand. "Whatever that was... I wouldn't want to take it on again. It was so... beyond anything I'd ever encountered before." She looks around to see Sue and the fallen AIM goons and perhaps also Jan. "I have a feeling it would have kicked my ass as telepathically as that psycho General Zod did physically." It takes a few long moments before the wobbly Invisible Woman - still quite visible - lurches back up to her feet, tucking the Winsome Wasp away safely as she does so. The masked young woman - visibly blonde, though nothing else can be told, most of her face covered as it i - walks over towards the fiery Phoenix and the armored Iron Man. "You two ... OK? I don't know what that was, but I wouldn't feel right leaving, before I'm sure you'll be alright." It's the medical doctor in her, though they wouldn't know that. "I'll live," comes Iron Man's mechanical voice. "My paint job, on the other hand." Yeah. He's scraped the suit up a bit in that little crash. Phoenix gives Iron Man a mildly amused look. "Oh, boo hoo, weren't you grouching about that paint scheme the other day? Now you can redo it the way you wanted it." She nods toward the other two ladies. "I'm as fine as I'll be until I get some brandy in my guts," she admits. "Hi, I'm Phoenix. Nice to meet you." Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, she then asks, "Do either of you know what's supposed to be in there? Cos if the manifest said anything other than 'big ugly monster with a mind more powerful than Chuck Norris', it'd be lying." The Invisible Woman extends a hand to Phoenix, with a nod. "Invisible Woman. Most of the time." It's a wry bit of humor; she's quite visible right now, after all. "My friend, Wasp, is resting. We don't know anything other than that this train was under attack. We came to help." They didn't do half bad, for not being professionals. "My partner didn't get to see a manifest, but she did say those AIM goons were screwing around with a bunch of containers onboard, including some big cryonics thing. I would guess whatever attacked our minds was inside that." She would love to know what the Hell that was and what it was doing on this transport. But somehow she cannot imagine the DoD is ever going to tell mere DARPA contractors such things, just because their case of experimental drugs was cracked open in all of this mess. "No offense to either of you, but if you are both OK and this situation is contained, we should get out of here. We're glad we could help." Eventually, she's going to have to figure out a way to open up lines of communication with Sentinel people that won't compromise everything. But for today, looks like they flee.